«Magento Mobile How-to» by Darko Goleš

The phrase Mobile Commerce was originally coined in 1997, to mean “the delivery of electronic commerce capabilities directly into the consumer’s hand, anywhere, via wireless technology.” Many choose to think of Mobile Commerce as meaning “a retail outlet in your customer’s pocket.”

According to BI Intelligence in January 2013, 29% of mobile users have now made a purchase with their phones. Walmart estimated that 40% of all visits to their internet shopping site in December 2012 were from a mobile device. Bank of America predicts $67.1 billion in purchases will be made from mobile devices by European and U.S. shoppers in 2015. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_commerce)

As of today, there are two possible approaches one can take to expanding the store visibility on mobile platforms: a mobile template and a mobile app. Their followers still argue which one is more profitable. But we will ignore these debates in a review.

Amazingly, this book is really a how-to. And do not confuse a good Magento and mobile apps how-to book to be easily written. As the author says in the preface, «This book is mainly aimed at merchants – Magento store owners, but also for developers and other curious readers, as it does not require any special knowledge about programming and Magento». I would just add: this book will help any Magento newbie develop a mobile app within the shortest possible time.

Chapter names of «Magento Mobile How-to» fully illustrate how detailed the description of the development process is:

Installing and configuring Magento Mobile Admin Panel

Getting acquainted with Magento Mobile Admin Panel

reating a separate Store View for mobile application

Configuring mobile themes for our Magento Mobile Store View

Preparing and updating product category thumbnail images for mobiles

Preparing your icons, logos, and other images for mobile applications

Updating an application’s copyright information

Creating and configuring a basic mobile application

Styling your mobile application

Adding static content

Configuring payment methods

Configuring social networks integration

Configuring the Push notification feature

Installing and using the Magento Mobile previewer app

Enrolling into the iOS Developer Program

Enrolling into the Android Developer program

Application submission to Magento Mobile

Application resubmission and monitoring progress

Push notification messages administration

All the chapters can be grouped into three levels of complexity:

– Must know — the main steps of the application creation and publication

– Should know — actions to customize the application easily

– Become an expert — an additional functionality to create a truly unique application, monitoring, sharing and push-notifications.

These levels are, however, quite relative. They are more intended to guide readers through the content. You can be sure that «Must know» and «Become an expert» parts are equally detailed and clear; there is no chance that you’ll cry out something like «This part is a real rocket science!»

I cannot but mention how the materials are delivered. Every step is illustrated (you remember we’re talking about the how-to, written exactly the way it should be). Except for illustrations and descriptions of configuration variants, every step is accompanied by a brief explanation of how it works in Magento. If you have never created a Store View, changed a category image or added an address of your store and a copyright, there will be no confusion: the author will clarify all the infinite checkboxes and input fields.

Is this book worth reading? Yes. Beginners will easily understand how to make the store easy-to-use for the mobile customers. Experts will appreciate how push-notifications and social networks integration in mobile apps are explained.

Pavel Novitsky is one of the few Magento Certified Developers Plus & Prestashop Certified Developer. He has 8 years of web-development experience. Pavel has developed Facebook Connect and Like free extension and for now it is installed on over 10 000 web stores. He gives lectures to other BelVG devs.

Pavel is married and has a son (whom he’s proud to call his major achievement). Pavel likes good music, philosophy books, detectives, adventure stories and “Winnie-the-Pooh” for relaxation.

The current global trend indicates the increase of Internet traffic for mobile phones, pads and tables. Many people today spend a free minute just surfing on the Internet, searching for some information, things or events. No wonder that as a consequence we can observe the growing number of online-store visitors, who prefer to make purchases directly from their mobile phones.

As a result, online store owners are beginning to adapt their websites to potential buyers and do their best to facilitate the browsing experience for all customers, including those with mobile devices. A mobile-optimized version of a website is no longer luxury today but a necessity that also shows respect to your customers. But it is important for a mobile version not to fall short of the same convenience and functionality as the main version, which stability and performance has been tested by web designers and proven by thousands of visitors. Therefore, this article we will devote exactly to peculiarities of testing of mobile versions of online stores. (more…)

According to the world’s trends, online stores should be adapted for mobile users. We’ll pass without notice any disputes on this issue. We’ll also ignore the implementation methods: mobile and responsive themes, applications and separated mobile websites. Let’s simply agree with the following fact: mobile store customers should be just as satisfied with browsing experience as their desktop colleagues.

So be it, then – mobile themes are reasonably necessary. Let’s now find out who spends more time in the online store. Is it a fastidious customer? Or a competitor? Or maybe Tax Authorities? None of the above. This is an admin! But we care about our customers as much as we ignore our managers. I don’t mean that developers don’t think how to make easy-to-use admin panel. They work on desktop devices and develop admin panel for themselves. It sounds justly. But this justice doesn’t work for the admin who decided to check out how it goes in the store during the trip. (more…)